AMERICA IS NOT A DEMOCRACY

President Woodrow Wilson stated; “A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.”

This statement from President Wilson is part of the problem that exists in America today. People believe America’s form of government is a democracy, when were not.

A few months back, a opinion columnist of the Naples Daily News, Ben Bova, made reference to America as a democracy in his weekly column. In my published letter to the editor, I responded to his error – included below. It is a common thing nowadays for the mainstream media to rewrite history and influence the public to believe what is not true. As citizens, it is our duty to proclaim the truth of this great nation and defend its historical facts.

C.S. Lewis says, “It is the forgotten past that enslaves us.”

Letter: Democracy? Not quite

Staff Reports

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Thomas Hughes, Naples

Democracy? Not quite

Ben Bova’s column, referring to America’s form of government as a democracy, is incorrect.

Article IV, Section IV of the U.S. Constitution states: “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion.”

In a democracy, the people themselves are the higher source of authority. When an issue is to be decided, the general population votes and the majority wins. In a democracy, the source of law is the majority or popular feeling of the people. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, said, “A simple democracy is the devil’s own government.”

In America’s republic, we recognize an authority higher than the people as the source of our laws. Citizens need to be aware of that higher authority when they elect representatives and select only those who understand the source of our laws. This will protect America from government encroachment upon them.

Noah Webster states clearly the source of our laws: “Our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion.”

If America’s citizens ever lose the commitment to biblical principles of right and wrong, we will lose our republican government.

According to Rush: “The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republic form of government … is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.”